Monday, March 14, 2016

Dalit hacking: Sankar and Kowsalya's story shows the horrors of inter-caste marriage in Tamil Nadu...

It was the kind of love story which every young boy and girl in rural Tamil Nadu yearns for.

This is the story which blockbuster romance movies are made of, and when you see it play out in your own life, it sends the mind racing ahead in happiness.

Sankar and Kowsalya were students studying different courses in the PA College in Palani. The couple met on the bus they used to take regularly back home.

Love blossomed and they decided to get married. There was however one major problem – Kowsalya was a Thevar, a powerful OBC community, and Sankar was a Pallar, a Dalit. The clash between Thevars and Pallars in Tamil Nadu is an old one.

The conflict increased with time as Thevar hegemony was challenged with the Pallars becoming less dependent on them for employment. What these two youngsters had to face for their love shows how horrifying it is for many couples who choose to marry out of the caste. Full story...